UK will provide Ukraine with weapons financed from frozen Russian assets for first time
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced a new military aid package for Ukraine. This time, it will be paid for with proceeds from frozen Russian assets.
This is reported by The Guardian, Censor.NET informs.
Thus, Ukraine will be provided with 350 modern air defence missiles manufactured in the UK and adapted in record time for ground launch. This will be funded by £70 million from the emergency ERA programme.
The publication notes that this is the first time the UK has used funds linked to Russia to directly finance arms.
The missiles will be fired by Raven systems supplied by the UK. 5 of them are already on their way to Ukraine. This will bring the total number of systems delivered to Ukraine to 13.
Originally designed as "air-to-air" missiles, the engineers upgraded the ASRAAM missiles for ground launch. It took only 3 months to complete.
Before the annual NATO summit in The Hague, Starmer said that Russia, not Ukraine, "should pay the price for Putin’s barbaric and illegal war".
"It is only right we use seized Russian assets to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences. The security of Ukraine is vital to our own," the Prime Minister said.
It is noted that the new package is part of the UK's largest annual aid to Ukraine, worth £4.5 billion.
This follows a £1.6bn agreement in March to supply more than 5,000 air defence missiles and a separate £350m investment to increase the supply of drones.
